In accordance with Dariush, his relationship with Gaethje and his head coach Trevor Wittman goes past the fighters sharing the identical supervisor in Ali Abdelaziz. In truth, Dariush says that Gaethje asking him to return be part of his coaching camp was a welcome alternative to pay again the same favor the previous World Collection of Preventing Champion did for him just a few years in the past.

“The rationale why we truly linked, again in 2018 I fought Thiago Moises and I fought in Denver,” Dariush defined when talking to MMA Preventing. “Because of the elevation, I needed to get there early and Justin truly referred to as me up and opened up his doorways for us. We had been in a position to practice at his gymnasium and he truly skilled with me to assist me put together for the combat.

“So earlier than I left, I advised Justin’s coach Trevor [Wittman], in case you ever want me, I’m obtainable. They ended up reaching out after they wanted me for this combat.”

Gaethje accepted the combat with Ferguson on brief discover, though he finally received a pair further weeks of coaching underneath his belt after UFC 249 was pushed again from April 18 to Could 9.

It’s nonetheless not the right state of affairs for a title combat and that’s why Dariush and UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman joined Gaethje’s camp to make sure he had the very best coaching attainable to prepare for Ferguson.

With Dariush on board, Gaethje discovered a coaching companion with the same physique sort as Ferguson to not point out the form of high-level submission grappling he’ll face this Saturday night time. Ferguson is well-known for his D’arce choke to not point out the flexibility to scramble out of virtually any state of affairs on the bottom.

In that regard, Dariush was the right physique double to return after Gaethje with the identical sorts of assaults he may see from Ferguson.

“That was a part of it for positive,” Dariush stated about his skill to imitate Ferguson forward of UFC 249. “That was one a part of it and the opposite half was tempo. With Kamaru and myself, the objective was tempo, to convey a excessive tempo. Consider it like this, after we would spar, I might take rounds off and Kamaru would go in. I might go for spherical 1 and Kamaru for spherical 2 or vice versa.

“Justin was simply in there for 5 rounds and it was unimaginable to observe him try this. I might convey within the awkwardness the place I might attempt lots of jiu-jitsu and Kamaru would placed on a extremely excessive tempo. I might attempt to do funky punches and simply attempt to emulate Tony, which I do know is just not a straightforward factor to do. He’s a really particular man however by way of tempo and by way of method, we introduced a really excessive stage and Justin was in a position to cope with it no downside.”

The five-round sparring classes helped push Gaethje’s conditioning as he prepares to face Ferguson, who’s outlined by his skill to push the tempo from the primary second of the combat till the final.

Whereas Dariush is assured that Gaethje is able to go for 25 minutes, he simply doesn’t see how Ferguson survives that lengthy with the hard-hitting light-weight, who has managed to rack up seven submit combat bonuses with solely six fights on his UFC resume.

“I’m envisioning a knockout,” Dariush stated. “Simply coaching with him, figuring out his energy, the way in which he strikes his ft, I believe he’s going to knock Tony out or Tony’s going to grasp there’s a line within the sand and he can’t cross that line and he’s going to attempt to combat on the surface.

“That’s not the man Tony is. Tony’s the form of man the place he’ll go previous that line and that’s why I believe there’s going to be a knockout and Justin’s going to be the one to do it.”